LG’s smartphone division hasn’t been performing well as it is so the intense competition in the Chinese smartphone market just keeps on dragging it down even further. If a new report is to be believed, the Korean company is thinking about leaving the Chinese smartphone market altogether.
LG reported its Q4 2017 earnings recently that while the company as a whole posted record-breaking revenues, its mobile division reported a loss of $192 million for the final quarter of last year. The earnings release mentioned that the mobile division had problems keeping up with “strong competition from Chinese brands.”
China is one of the most lucrative smartphone markets on the planet and it’s dominated by local brands. Apple has cemented itself as a major player in the market but other foreign companies haven’t been as lucky. Chinese brands rule their local smartphone market and even companies like Samsung which was the top global smartphone vendor last year have a single-digit market share in the People’s Republic.
Things seem to be particularly bad for LG which reportedly sold just 160,000 smartphones in China back in 2016. LG didn’t even launch the G6 and V30 handsets officially in China, the company’s official website for the country puts the LG G5 front and center. This goes to show that it may very well have made its mind to not compete in the Chinese smartphone market and focus its energies elsewhere.